THE passing of Ronald Reagan invited lots of comparisons between the late leader and President George W. Bush by both conservatives and liberals, some seeking to make proxy statements about Bush in the process.
Of course, the contextual issues and situations that Reagan faced were different than those that Bush now faces, making it difficult to make much of a fair comparison. But even lacking commonality of circumstance, it is clear that Bush, like Reagan, has laid a path toward accomplishing great things with our national power, a path that is compatible with Reagan's foreign policy legacy.
Bush, during his presidency, has had to deal with issues Reagan never had to. For one, Reagan never had to endure an attack on American soil, and all the economic, political and national psycological impact that entails. To say that Reagan appealed to our optimism during the Cold War and Bush to our worst fears in the war on terror, as some Democrats have, is simply fallacious; in this post-Sept. 11 world, where the target has become so much less identifiable, less traceable and completely incapable of rational diplomacy, Bush projects a resolve that such a threat cannot survive for long.
Indeed, history will look back on the Bush years as a period when the nation experienced one of its darkest moments, but then rallied to a new nationalism that has sustained itself past 9-11. Even though they differ on how to bring it about, both Republicans and Democrats in this election year are making appeals to voters which are strongly rooted in how they will strengthen the position and security of America in the world. Conventional wisdom held that such nationalistic appeal had gotten lost in the wilderness of the Clinton years, in a forest of the Internet, promiscuous officials, and a generally individually focused worldview.
Compared to the relatively blissful 1990s, America now finds itself in serious times presented with serious issues, just as it was in Reagan's time. Under Bush's leadership, the country has dealt with those issues, most especially the liberation of Iraq. The latest polling by the Pew Research Center found that, despite all the difficulties we have encountered in Iraq, the majority of Americans believe things are going well in Iraq. While polling varies on this subject by organization and question phrasing, this is clearly not a 21st-century Vietnam situation; this was and continues to be a war and a cause that a great deal to a majority of the public have supported.
As illustrated by the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, our great mission as a country under the Bush administration is shining the light of democracy and representative government on a dark, dark part of our world, the Middle East, much like Reagan's America did for the Eastern Bloc. It is a part of the world where demagogues both attempt to cultivate hatred of Western liberalism, but also abuse and oppress those same people in ways which would make an Abu Ghraib prison guard blush. When President Bush uses absolutist terms like "evil" to describe such areas (as Reagan did for Communist hubs), he is well justified.
The United States, under President Bush, has given Iraqis the opportunity to establish a Middle Eastern "city upon the hill," a native beacon of sovereign, representational government to show the way in the Arab world. And despite the mistakes we have made along the way (and yes, we have made them), we have plenty going in our favor. For one, the people of Iraq want such a government. According to ABCNews polling done in March of this year, for every one Iraqi who wants an Islamic state, there are more than two who want democracy. Democracy also clearly beats out the other option offered in the survey, a strong leader "for life."
Lech Walesa, the former leader of the Solidarity movement in Poland and subsequently the freed country's president, wrote a piece in the Wall Street Journal after Reagan's death, expressing his deep gratitute and admiration for a U.S. administration unshakingly committed to seeing freedom in Poland and Eastern Europe.
It should not surprise anyone in 10 years to read a similar such article from an appreciative Iraqi, thanking the United States for its conviction of what is right and wrong, its commitment to the spread of freedom and its belief that democracy isn't just a Western phenomenon but a universal value attainable by all, values trumpeted by President Bush.
The Gipper would be proud.
Jim Prosser is a Cavalier Daily columnist. He can be reached at jprosser@cavalierdaily.com.
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